interviewhttp://www.pcper.com
PC Perspectivehttp://www.pcper.com/images/podcast-logo-600x600.pngenInterview with Bohemia Interactive, ArmA 3 Developer: Expansion, Optimization, Roadmaphttp://www.pcper.com/reviews/Editorial/Interview-Bohemia-Interactive-ArmA-3-Developer-Expansion-Optimization-Roadmap
<p><em>Thanks to Ian Comings, guest writer from the PC Perspective Forums who conducted the interview of Bohemia Interactive&#39;s Joris-Jan van &lsquo;t Land. If you are interested in learning more about ArmA 3 and hanging out with some PC gamers to play it, <a href="http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?2-Gaming">check out the PC Perspective Gaming Forum! </a></em></p>
<p>I recently got the chance to send some questions to Bohemia Interactive, a computer game development company based out of Prague, Czech Republic, and a member of IDEA Games. Bohemia Interactive was founded in 1999 by CEO Marek &Scaron;paněl, and it is best known for PC gaming gems like Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, The ArmA series, Take On Helicopters, and DayZ. The questions are answered by ArmA 3&#39;s Project Lead: Joris-Jan van &lsquo;t Land.</p>
<p><strong>PC Perspective: How long have you been at Bohemia Interactive?</strong></p>
<p>VAN &lsquo;T LAND: All in all, about 14 years now.</p>
<p><strong>PC Perspective: </strong><strong>What inspired you to become a Project Lead at Bohemia Interactive?</strong></p>
<p>VAN &lsquo;T LAND: During high school, it was pretty clear to me that I wanted to work in game development, and just before graduation, a friend and I saw a first preview for Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis in a magazine. It immediately looked amazing to us; we were drawn to the freedom and diversity it promised and the military theme. After helping run a fan website (Operation Flashpoint Network) for a while, I started to assist with part-time external design work on the game (scripting and scenario editing). From that point, I basically grew naturally into this role at Bohemia Interactive.</p>
<p><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/reviews/Editorial/Interview-Bohemia-Interactive-ArmA-3-Developer-Expansion-Optimization-Roadmap" class="inline-image-link" title="View: arma3_screenshot_02.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/review/2015-02-23/arma3_screenshot_02.jpg" alt="arma3_screenshot_02.jpg" title="arma3_screenshot_02.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="376" /></a></div></p>
<p><strong>PC Perspective: What part of working at Bohemia Interactive do you find most satisfying? What do you find most challenging?</strong></p>
<p>VAN &lsquo;T LAND: The amount of freedom and autonomy is very satisfying. If you can demonstrate skills in some area, you&#39;re welcome to come up with random ideas and roll with them. Some of those ideas can result in official releases, such as <a href="http://arma3.com/dlc/zeus">Arma 3 Zeus</a>. Another rewarding aspect is the near real-time connection to those people who are playing the game. Our daily <a href="http://dev.arma3.com/dev-branch">Dev-Branch</a> release means the work I do on Monday is live on Tuesday. Our own ambitions, on the other hand, can sometimes result in some challenges. We want to do a lot and incorporate every aspect of combat in Arma, but we&#39;re still a relatively small team. This can mean we bite off more than we can deliver at an acceptable level of quality.</p>
<p><strong>PC Perspective: What are some of the problems that have plagued your team, and how have they been overcome?</strong></p>
<p>VAN &lsquo;T LAND: One key problem for us was that we had no real experience with developing a game in more than one physical location. For Arma 3, our team was split over two main offices, which caused quite a few headaches in terms of communication and data synchronization. We&#39;ve since had more key team members travel between the offices more frequently and improved our various virtual communication methods. A lot of work has been done to try to ensure that both offices have the latest version of the game at any given time. That is not always easy when your bandwidth is limited and games are getting bigger and bigger.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Editorial/Interview-Bohemia-Interactive-ArmA-3-Developer-Expansion-Optimization-Roadmap">Continue reading our interview with Bohemia Interactive!!</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Editorial/Interview-Bohemia-Interactive-ArmA-3-Developer-Expansion-Optimization-Roadmap" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Editorial/Interview-Bohemia-Interactive-ArmA-3-Developer-Expansion-Optimization-Roadmap#commentsEditorialarma 3ARMA IIIbohemia interactiveinterviewTue, 24 Feb 2015 22:01:51 +0000Ryan Shrout62403 at http://www.pcper.comCore Mantle Questions: Interview with AMD's Guennadi Riguerhttp://www.pcper.com/reviews/General-Tech/Core-Mantle-Questions-Interview-AMDs-Guennadi-Riguer
<p style="font-style: normal">Mantle is a very interesting concept. From <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDPgJB2x7dQ">the various keynote speeches</a>, it sounds like the API is being designed to address the current state (and trajectory) of graphics processors. GPUs are generalized and highly parallel computation devices which are assisted by a little bit of specialized silicon, when appropriate. The vendors have even settled on standards, such as IEEE-754 floating point decimal numbers, which means that the driver has much less reason to shield developers from the underlying architectures.</p>
<p style="font-style: normal">Still, Mantle is currently a private technology for an unknown number of developers. Without a public SDK, or anything beyond the half-dozen keynotes, we can only speculate on its specific attributes. I, for one, have technical questions and hunches which linger unanswered or unconfirmed, probably until the API is suitable for public development.</p>
<p style="font-style: normal">Or, until we just... ask AMD.</p>
<p class="rtecenter" style="font-style: normal;"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/reviews/General-Tech/Core-Mantle-Questions-Interview-AMDs-Guennadi-Riguer" class="inline-image-link" title="View: amd-mantle-interview-01.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/review/2014-02-04/amd-mantle-interview-01.jpg" alt="amd-mantle-interview-01.jpg" title="amd-mantle-interview-01.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="340" /></a></div></p>
<p style="font-style: normal">Our response came from Guennadi Riguer, the chief architect for Mantle. In it, he discusses the API&#39;s usage as a computation language, the future of the rendering pipeline, and whether there will be a day where Crossfire-like benefits can occur by leaving an older Mantle-capable GPU in your system when purchasing a new, also Mantle-supporting one.</p>
<p style="font-style: normal"><strong>Q</strong>: Mantle&#39;s shading language is said to be compatible with HLSL. How will optimizations made for DirectX, such as tweaks during shader compilation, carry over to Mantle? How much tuning will (and will not) be shared between the two APIs?</p>
<p style="font-style: normal">[<strong>Guennadi</strong>] The current Mantle solution relies on the same shader generation path games the DirectX uses and includes an open-source component for translating DirectX shaders to Mantle accepted intermediate language (IL). This enables developers to quickly develop Mantle code path without any changes to the shaders. This was one of the strongest requests we got from our ISV partners when we were developing Mantle.</p>
<p class="rtecenter" style="font-style: normal;"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/reviews/General-Tech/Core-Mantle-Questions-Interview-AMDs-Guennadi-Riguer" class="inline-image-link" title="View: AMD-mantle-dx-hlsl-GSA_screen_shot.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/review/2014-02-04/AMD-mantle-dx-hlsl-GSA_screen_shot.jpg" alt="AMD-mantle-dx-hlsl-GSA_screen_shot.jpg" title="AMD-mantle-dx-hlsl-GSA_screen_shot.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="367" /></a></div></p>
<p style="font-style: normal"><strong>Follow-Up</strong>: What does this mean, specifically, in terms of driver optimizations? Would AMD, or anyone else who supports Mantle, be able to re-use the effort they spent on tuning their shader compilers (and so forth) for DirectX?</p>
<p style="font-style: normal">[<strong>Guennadi</strong>] With the current shader compilation strategy in Mantle, the developers can directly leverage DirectX shader optimization efforts in Mantle. They would use the same front-end HLSL compiler for DX and Mantle, and inside of the DX and Mantle drivers we share the shader compiler that generates the shader code our hardware understands.</p>
<p><i><a href="http://www.pcper.com/reviews/General-Tech/Core-Mantle-Questions-Interview-AMDs-Guennadi-Riguer">Read on to see the rest of the interview</a>!</i></p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/reviews/General-Tech/Core-Mantle-Questions-Interview-AMDs-Guennadi-Riguer" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/reviews/General-Tech/Core-Mantle-Questions-Interview-AMDs-Guennadi-Riguer#commentsGeneral TechGraphics CardsamdinterviewMantleWed, 05 Feb 2014 17:44:55 +0000Scott Michaud59504 at http://www.pcper.comBioshock Infinite Will Take Full Advantage of PC Platformhttp://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/Bioshock-Infinite-Will-Take-Full-Advantage-PC-Platform
<p>Despite the yearly proclamations of death, PC gaming is still alive and kicking. 2012 saw a number of developers put more emphasis back on the PC in multi-platform development schedules. It seems that Irrational Games also realizes the advantages of the PC platform with Bioshock Infinite. In an interview with Ken Levine and Chris Kline of Irrational Games, the developers told IGN what the company is doing to develop the PC version of the game. While they encountered several issues during development of the first Bioshock, Irrational Games is giving Bioshock Infinite its own team of on-call programmers to develop the PC version.</p>
<p class="rtecenter" style=""><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/General-Tech/Bioshock-Infinite-Will-Take-Full-Advantage-PC-Platform" class="inline-image-link" title="View: welcome_ONLINE.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2013-01-15/welcome_ONLINE.jpg" alt="welcome_ONLINE.jpg" title="welcome_ONLINE.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="602" height="339" /></a></div></p>
<p>Reportedly, the developers underestimated the time and effort required to develop the first Bioshock game using DirectX 10 technology and a PC-optimized UI. In the interview with IGN, Irrational Games&rsquo; Technical Director Chris Kline stated that &ldquo;this time around things were done differently.&rdquo; Irrational Game has a team of programmers, artists, designers, and UI specialists dedicated to the PC development track along with the team working on the console versions.</p>
<p>The PC version of Bioshock Infinite will be able to take full advantage of the higher-end hardware in computers. The game will come on 3 discs and feature:</p>
<ul>
<li>
Additional objects and particles versus consoles</li>
<li>
Longer viewing distances</li>
<li>
Higher quality textures</li>
<li>
High precision color buffer</li>
<li>
DirectX 11 features:
<ul>
<li>
Contact hardening shadows</li>
<li>
HD ambient occlusion</li>
<li>
Diffusion depth of field</li>
<li>
Compute Shader</li>
<li>
FXAA using Shader Model 5</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>According to the developers, medium quality settings on the PC will be equivalent to the console versions of the game. From there, the PC will have high, very high, and ultra settings that will further ramp up visual quality beyond what the current generation of consoles are capable of. Specifically, the PC system requirements for Bioshock Infinite are as follows:</p>
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 500px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Component</td>
<td>
Minimum Requirements</td>
<td>
Recommended Requirements</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
CPU</td>
<td>
Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon X2 @ 2.7GHz</td>
<td>
Quad-core processor</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
RAM</td>
<td>
2GB</td>
<td>
4GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
GPU</td>
<td>
ATI Radeon HD 3870 or NVIDIA 8800GT</td>
<td>
AMD Radeon HD 6950 or NVIDIA GTX 560</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
HDD</td>
<td>
20GB free</td>
<td>
30GB free</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Sound Card</td>
<td>
DirectX Compatible</td>
<td>
DirectX Compatible</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Operating System</td>
<td>
Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (32-bit)</td>
<td>
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (64-bit)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>It is refreshing to see developers respect the gaming platform that starting it all and is driving the industry (in hardware at least), and take PC gaming seriously. Here&#39;s hoping Bioshock Infinite is a success. Considering it is due out on March 26th, 2013 gamers do not have long to wait to find out how well the PC version was done.&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://m.ign.com/articles/2013/01/15/bioshock-infinite-the-pc-version-difference">IGN has the full interview with Chris Kline and Kevin Levine</a> that is worth reading to find out the developers stance on the future of PC gaming, the <a href="http://www.pcper.com/category/tags/oculus-rift">Oculus Rift</a>, and even Valve&#39;s upcoming Steam Box!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/Bioshock-Infinite-Will-Take-Full-Advantage-PC-Platform" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/Bioshock-Infinite-Will-Take-Full-Advantage-PC-Platform#commentsGeneral Techbioshock infiniteinterviewpc gamingTue, 15 Jan 2013 19:17:54 +0000Tim Verry56344 at http://www.pcper.comJohn Carmack Interview: Question and Topic suggestions?http://www.pcper.com/news/Editorial/John-Carmack-Interview-Question-and-Topic-suggestions
<p>A couple of years back <a href="http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/John-Carmack-id-Tech-6-Ray-Tracing-Consoles-Physics-and-more">we talked on the phone with John Carmack</a> during the period of excitement about ray tracing and game engines.&nbsp; That interview is still one of our most read articles on PC&nbsp;Perspective as he always has interesting topics and information to share.&nbsp; While we are hosting the <a href="http://pcper.com/workshop">PC&nbsp;Perspective Hardware Workshop on&nbsp;Saturday at Quakecon 2011</a>, we also scheduled some time to sit with John again to pick his brain on hardware and technology.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Editorial/John-Carmack-Interview-Question-and-Topic-suggestions" class="inline-image-link" title="View: carmack1.jpg"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2011-08-04/carmack1.jpg" alt="carmack1.jpg" title="carmack1.jpg" class="pcper-inline" width="600" height="402" /></a></div></p>
<p>If you had a chance to ask John Carmack questions about hardware and technology, either the current sets of each or what he sees coming in the future, what would you ask?&nbsp;&nbsp;Let us know in our comments section below!! (No registration required to comment.)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/news/Editorial/John-Carmack-Interview-Question-and-Topic-suggestions" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/news/Editorial/John-Carmack-Interview-Question-and-Topic-suggestions#commentsEditorialGraphics CardsProcessorsamdcarmackinterviewjohn carmacknvidiaThu, 04 Aug 2011 15:15:42 +0000Ryan Shrout52039 at http://www.pcper.comInterview with Pete Graner, Manager of the Ubuntu Kernel Teamhttp://www.pcper.com/news/Editorial/Interview-Pete-Graner-Manager-Ubuntu-Kernel-Team
<p>In a continuation of our effort to embrace and report on the open-source community, PC Perspective has contacted another very interesting Open-Source project. This week we selected <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> and their Manager of the Ubuntu Kernel Team, Pete Graner</p>
<p class="rtecenter">&nbsp;<div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Editorial/Interview-Pete-Graner-Manager-Ubuntu-Kernel-Team" class="inline-image-link" title="View: logo.png"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2011-05-26/logo.png" alt="logo.png" title="logo.png" class="pcper-inline" width="160" height="64" /></a></div></p>
<p class="rtecenter"><sub>Image courtesy of </sub><a href="http://www.ubuntu.com"><sub>Ubuntu</sub></a></p>
<p class="rteleft">The self-described beginning of Ubuntu:</p>
<p><em>Linux was already established as an enterprise server platform in 2004. But free software was still not a part of everyday life for most computer users. That's why Mark Shuttleworth gathered a small team of developers from one of the most established Linux projects &ndash; Debian - and set out to create an easy-to-use Linux desktop, Ubuntu.</em></p>
<p><em>The vision for Ubuntu is part social and part economic: free software, available free of charge to everybody on the same terms, and funded through a portfolio of services provided by Canonical.</em></p>
<p class="rteleft">If you would like to learn more about Ubuntu please <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu">click here</a>.</p>
<p class="rteleft">Ubuntu also lists its features as the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>A fresh look</strong></li>
</ul>
<p class="rteindent1"><u>The launcher</u>: <em>Get easy access to your favourite tools and applications with our lovely new launcher. You can hide and reveal it, add and remove apps and keep track of your open windows.</em><br />
<u>The dash</u>: <em>Our new dash offers a great way to get to your shortcuts and search for more apps and programs. So you can get fast access to your email, music, pictures and much more.</em><br />
<u>Workspaces</u>:<em> Our handy workspaces tool gives you a really easy way to view and move between multiple windows and applications.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Secure</strong></li>
</ul>
<p class="rteindent1"><em>You can surf in safety with Ubuntu &ndash; confident that your files and data will stay protected. A built-in firewall and virus protection come as standard. And if a potential threat appears, we provide automatic updates which you can install in a single click. You get added security with AppArmor, which protects your important applications so attackers can&rsquo;t access your system. And thanks to Firefox and gnome-keyring, Ubuntu helps you keep your private information private. So whether it&rsquo;s accessing your bank account or sharing sensitive data with friends or colleagues, you&rsquo;ll have peace of mind when you need it the most.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Compatible<br />
</strong></li>
</ul>
<p class="rteindent1"><em>Ubuntu works brilliantly with a range of devices. Simply plug in your mp3 player, camera or printer and you&rsquo;ll be up and running straight away. No installation CDs. No fuss. And it&rsquo;s compatible with Windows too! So you can open, edit and share Microsoft Office documents stress-free.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Fast<br />
</strong></li>
</ul>
<p class="rteindent1"><em>Ubuntu loads quickly on any computer, but it's super-fast on newer machines. With no unnecessary programs and trial software slowing things down, booting up and opening a browser takes seconds. Unlike other operating systems that leave you staring at the screen, waiting to get online. And Ubuntu won&rsquo;t grow sluggish over time. It&rsquo;s fast. And it stays fast.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Accessible</strong></li>
</ul>
<p class="rteindent1"><em>Accessibility is central to the Ubuntu philosophy. We believe that computing is for everyone regardless of nationality, race, gender or disability. Fully translated into 25 languages, Ubuntu also includes essential assistive technologies, which are, of course, completely free. We recommend the Ubuntu classic desktop experience for users with particular accessibility requirements.</em></p>
<p class="rteleft">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><div class = "center-article-image"><a href="/news/Editorial/Interview-Pete-Graner-Manager-Ubuntu-Kernel-Team" class="inline-image-link" title="View: ubuntu-small.png"><img src="/files/imagecache/article_max_width/news/2011-05-26/ubuntu-small.png" alt="ubuntu-small.png" title="ubuntu-small.png" class="pcper-inline" width="480" height="384" /></a></div></p>
<p class="rtecenter"><sub>(Image courtesy of <a href="http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora">Distrowatch</a></sub><sub>)</sub></p>
<p class="rteleft">I have used Ubuntu almost as long as I have been using Fedora. Ubuntu has been my go to Linux distrobution since Wartty Warthog. I have installed Ubuntu on laptops, family members computers, and I even went 100% Ubuntu for a year. In my experience, any and all of my questions could be answered by <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/">Documentation</a>, <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community">Community</a>, and <a href="https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu">Launchpad</a>.</p>
<p>Now that you have a brief idea about Ubuntu, lets get to the interview:</p>
<p class="rteleft">(Hit that Read More link for the details!!)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcper.com/news/Editorial/Interview-Pete-Graner-Manager-Ubuntu-Kernel-Team" target="_blank">read more</a></p>http://www.pcper.com/news/Editorial/Interview-Pete-Graner-Manager-Ubuntu-Kernel-Team#commentsEditorialhardwareinterviewkernellinuxubuntuFri, 27 May 2011 17:52:08 +0000John Davis51461 at http://www.pcper.com